Finding Time
by zelda49
Summary: [DannyOC] With such demanding jobs, Maddie and Danny discover it isn't always easy to find time to spend together.


A/N: One more from me this weekend before I go back to being a grown-up ;) I borrowed Maddie from _It Could Happen to You_, but the rest of this is independent of the larger story, so if you haven't read it don't worry. If you have, some of the little details here might look familiar. Either way, this piece is just a little bit of cute fluff, so read and enjoy!

* * *

"So what're we doin' tonight?" Danny asked, strolling into Maddie's classroom at lunchtime one afternoon. 

She turned from her computer and flashed a bright smile at him. "Hey slugger," she called as he approached her desk. "What're you doin' here?" She rose from her chair and slid her arms around his waist as he pulled her to him.

He kissed her softly. "Came to see my girlfriend," he grinned as he drew away.

She laughed at the dopey expression on his face and touched his cheek. "Look at you, all excited to be in a relationship…"

He ran his hands over her back and chuckled. "I am…it's weird, y'know?"

"So it's weird that you like being with me?" she teased with a raised eyebrow.

"That's not what I meant," he backpedaled, shaking his head. "It's just different for me…"

Maddie laughed again then closed her mouth over his, threading her fingers through his hair. "I know," she smirked when their lips parted.

Danny shook his head again. "No, you don't know." He held her tightly against him and rested his forehead against hers. "This…what we have…has never happened to me before…"

She rubbed the back of his neck, smiling gently. "It hasn't happened to me, either."

They held each other a moment longer, enjoying the feeling of being together, before the bell rang.

Maddie frowned. "I gotta go," she told him. "I got stuck with lunch duty this quarter."

"Wanna take my gun?" Danny offered with a smirk.

She grinned and kissed him quickly. "Don't tempt me."

He laughed, reluctantly releasing her from his grasp. "All right. But you still didn't answer my question…what're we doin' tonight?"

"Well I'm tutoring tonight," she reminded him as she grabbed her school keys from her desk drawer. "The last big push before the underclassmen take their finals."

It was his turn to frown. "Oh yeah."

"What about tomorrow, though?" she asked.

He shook his head, resting a hand on the small of her back as he followed her out of the classroom and down the hall. "Tomorrow I'm working a later shift. You'll be in bed asleep before I even punch out. Friday I get off at six, though…"

That brought a smile to her face. "And I should be out of here by four…"

They reached a fork in the hallway and paused, wrapping their arms lightly around each other.

"So Friday," he agreed. "You 'n me…dinner at Trovo at eight o'clock?"

"Trovo? That's pretty high class, Danny," she told him. "It's not our usual kind of place."

He nodded. "I know. Let's do somethin' different."

Maddie smiled. "Okay. Dinner at Trovo, eight o'clock Friday."

He grinned and kissed her quickly, loosening his grip on her hips. "Can't wait."

She kissed him again before allowing him to leave. She waited for a minute as he headed down the hallway toward the main lobby, her smile widening as she watched him go.

* * *

When Friday finally arrived, Maddie had to admit she was pretty excited. She and Danny didn't spend many nights out, and when they did it was usually pretty low key stuff. Neither of them was really into the whole fancy restaurant scene, but it _was_ nice to get all dressed up for a night on the town once in a while. 

She managed to leave school at a decent hour, stopping by the dry cleaners to pick up her dress for the evening. When she got home, she had to fight the urge to begin getting ready right away, instead deciding to take some time to decompress after a long day. She flopped down on the couch and flipped on a rerun of _Law & Order_—something Danny would never watch with her because of his occupation—forgetting about life for a little while as she became absorbed in the story.

After the show ended, though, she could no longer contain her excitement and headed into the bathroom to work on her hair. She smiled as she pulled out the ponytail she had worn to school that day and ran a brush through the soft brown curls, wondering what to do with them.

"Something special," she told her reflection. "It isn't every day we go to someplace like Trovo…"

She played for several minutes before deciding on a simple but elegant updo, fishing around for the bottle of hairspray and curling iron she knew she had stashed somewhere in the bathroom. Finding it, she went to work, and after several tries finally ended up with a look she was satisfied with.

Maddie wandered into her bedroom and pulled her dress out of its plastic dry cleaner's bag, inspecting the silky blue material inch by inch before she put it on. She grinned as she stripped off her school clothes and slipped the dress off the hangar, picturing Danny's reaction to the strappy little number when he saw her in it later.

A ringing phone snapped her out of her daydream, and she hurried into the kitchen to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Miss Parrish? It's Jimmy Salave'a…"

Maddie smiled. Jimmy was one of her hardest workers, very serious about his education. "Hey Jimmy, what can I do for you?"

She heard the boy swallow hard before answering. "Can you do me a really big favor?"

_If I had a nickel for every time I heard those words_, she thought with a mental wink. Out loud she replied, "Of course. What do you need?"

"I, uh, need some company," he responded. "See, I took a cab home after work today with the money you lent me, and it got T-boned by another cab…"

"What?" she asked in disbelief. "You were in a car accident? Jimmy, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he assured her. "The paramedics came and took me to the hospital, and they said I just have a slight concussion and a few scratches. But they won't let me go until my mom comes because I'm a minor…"

Maddie glanced at the little digital clock on her stove. "…and your mom's still at work," she finished.

"Yeah," Jimmy repeated. "It's a lot to ask, so if you can't come it's okay…"

"Of course I'll come," she told him. "Which hospital are you at?"

He gave her the information and she hung up the phone, then quickly picked it up again to call Danny. "Hey slugger," she said when he answered. "I just got a call from Jimmy Salave'a. He was in a car accident, and now he's in the ER alone…"

"Is he okay?" Danny asked quickly.

"Yeah. From what I understand he'll be good as new in a couple of days," she assured him, "but his mom works second shift and can't leave work or she'll lose her job. He's almost seventeen years old, but I could hear how scared he was—he's never been in the hospital before. You think we could push our reservation back so I can go sit with him for a while?"

Danny half smiled half frowned into the phone. He loved her dedication to her students and was glad Jimmy was okay, but he had been looking forward to this evening all week. "We can try."

"I'm sorry, babe. I know how hard it is to get a table at Trovo…"

He shook his head even though she couldn't see him. "No, no, it's okay. Go to the hospital. I'll see if I can push the reservation back, and maybe we'll still get to go out tonight."

"You sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he promised. And he was. How many times had he called her to break a date because of his job? "Go see Jimmy…I'll call you when I find out about dinner."

* * *

Eight hours later, Jimmy's mother finally made it to the hospital to pick up her son. Both the Salave'as were grateful to Maddie for staying with Jimmy, and she'd been happy to do it, but a rueful glance at the clock informed her that here evening was shot. She said good-bye to mother and son and headed out to her car, glancing at the clock again as she turned the key in the ignition and wondered if Danny would mind her company this late. 

"He's probably asleep," she said to the car. "…won't even know I'm there."

But she would know _he_ was there, and she needed to be with him after what had been not such a good week at school. The key he had given her hung from her keychain, glinting in the fluorescent lights of the parking structure, and she made up her mind. Even if he was completely unconscious, she wanted to see him.

When she arrived at Danny's apartment, she turned the key in the lock quietly and crept into the dark entryway, pulling off her high-heeled shoes and dropping her purse beside them. Moving slowly through the living room to the bedroom, she saw that he was indeed sound asleep, stretched out on the bed with the sheet twisted around him, the blankets forming a pile on the floor where he had pushed them off during the warm, summery night.

Maddie stood in the doorway for a moment, just watching Danny sleep. She noted with delight that he had gone to bed wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, a preference she had expressed to him on previous occasions. His bare chest rose and fell in a gentle rhythm, peaceful and calm, belying the hectic day he'd had. In his arms he clutched a pillow and she grinned when she saw it. They hadn't spent all that many nights together yet, but already he had confessed to her that he had trouble falling asleep without her, and had taken to cuddling a pillow when she wasn't there.

She chuckled silently as she moved forward into the room, trying to remember which drawer in his dresser had been designated as hers. After a few minutes of searching, she found what she was looking for and pulled out a pair of shorts and a little tank top, changing into them tiredly. She hung her dress from the doorknob of the closet and pulled the pins out of her hair, placing them on Danny's nightstand as she combed through the brown strands with her fingers

Carefully she crawled into bed beside him, running a hand over his back, breathing in his scent. _Yes_, she decided, _this was a good idea_.

She planted a soft kiss on his shoulder, then laid her head back against the pillow. He turned over in his sleep as if responding to her presence and draped an arm around her, bringing a smile to her lips. This might be the only time they had spent together all week, but—for now at least—it was enough.


End file.
